by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
The smell of bacon permeates the elevator shaft of the SunTrust building.
The smell comes from Wade’s Place, which is in the tunnel under the building, and lures tenants and visitors to the eatery.
“He cooks it in the elevator so everyone will come down and see him,” joked Molly Boyd, property manager of the building at the corner of Forsyth and Bay.
The 18-story building has been a banking center since it was built in 1975 and the smell of bacon is not the only thing that lures tenants.
Its location puts it within a quick walk of any other Northbank location. Wade’s isn’t the only nearby eatery; the Forsyth/Hogan St. area is full of places. There’s also a dentist in the building, a barber shop and a shoeshine stand.
Also, the building has 24-hour security with two guards per shift, parking available at two spaces per 1,000 square feet in and code-accessed women’s restrooms.
It was built in 1975 as the headquarters for the Atlantic National Bank. It even had a restaurant on the 17th floor.
“It had to be a big deal and mean a lot to the City,” said Mike Hall, chief engineer for the building who maintains the building’s mechanical, plumbing and electrical functions. “It had to mean something very good to the City because it brought in more tenants and revenue.”
The exterior is created by precast panels embedded with quartz stone creating a rough look to it.
The building then changed hands with bank mergers: Atlantic sold to Florida National Bank, which later was acquired by First Union. The building then was converrted into a multi-tenant building. In 1992, it was sold to SB Jax Ltd., which currently owns it.
About a month ago, the building changed management companies from Songy Partners Realty to Gateway Management Inc.
The building was designed by Kemp, Bunch and Jackson Architects which is now KBJ Architects. It was constructed by the Auchter Company and was at the time one of the tallest downtown.
“The Independent Life building and this building were built about the same time,” said Hall. At that time, thetallest buildings were around 15 floors: what’s now CSX and the City Hall Annex (then Seaboard Coast Line and City Hall.)”
Even though the SunTrust sign is on the top, the bank is not the only tenant in the 244,000-square foot building. To be sure, it’s the main tenant with 72,423 square feet.
But there are 39 others. The next largest is E. Spire Communications, Inc. which occupies 12,036 square feet. The others, which include law firms, doctors, engineering firms, management companies, title insurance and more, take up 150,325 square feet. Vacancies include 2,137 square feet on the 11th floor, 3,816 square feet on the 16th floor and 3,263 square feet on the 17th floor.
“Most of this area (17th floor) will be under lease very quickly,” said Boyd.
The lease rates for those spaces range from $18-19.50 depending on its location in the building.
Recent renovations include a resurfacing of the outside patio.
“We took it off because it had some leaks in it from the original waterproofing design,” said Hall. “We put in a new waterproofing system and a new paver design. The project took about 6-8 months.”
Some of the common areas and elevator lobbys have been upgraded with new carpet, tile, ceilings and wallpaper, but the entire building has not been renovated.
Now that Gateway has taken over the management of the building, more interior renovations may take place.
“Our new management company is looking at doing some additional common area upgrades,” said Boyd.
Another change is that Cushman and Wakefield used to lease the building. It’s now handled in-house through the property management division.
Parking, usually a problem downtown, is not for this building. The building is allotted 373 parking spots in the parking garage cater corner across Bay Street in the Omni/First Union.
There is a 40-space surface parking lot on the corner of Forsyth and Julia. SunTrust has about half of those spaces for 30-minute parking for its customers; the rest are hourly spots for downtown visitors.